* 4:43 pm - Chicago’s Mayor-Elect Rahm Emanuel has said he would likely be playing in some aldermanic runoffs now that he avoided one himself. His campaign just sent out this e-mail…

In response to a request from many of you, I wanted to provide an estimate of cash-on-hand remaining in the campaign fund. It’s only an estimate because we have subtracted what we know are the outstanding expenditures, but there could be something we are missing and the final report with all of the expenditures is not immediately due.

The estimate of cash-on-hand remaining is $2.1 million — and again I caution you that the final number could be slightly different when all is said and done.

* Roundup…

* Emanuel visits South Side charter school: The mayor-elect said he and his wife have not yet decided whether to send their children to Chicago Public Schools. “Amy and I are going to make this decision as parents,” said Emanuel, adding that they are considering both public and private schools. “If it comes with political price, I am willing to pay it…”

* Mayor-elect Emanuel teachers AP class; treated to student rap: Emanuel told reporters not to read too much into his decision to teach his first post-election class at a charter school. The mayor-elect called charters a “tool in the tool box,” but said he does not consider them the “end-all-and-be-all” of education.

* Miguel del Valle Says No to Rahm Emanuel: I had one brief conversation with him. He called me on Wednesday, and he asked me if I would consider being a co-chair of his transition team. I replied no because I’ll be working on a number of things.

* How bad was it for Carol Moseley Braun?: In 174 of the city’s 2,570 precincts, mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun received zero votes. In approximately 1,000 precincts, she received 9 or fewer votes

* Rahm Gets a Lesson in Press Relations: Once reporters arrived at the school, they were told they couldn’t ask questions of the children, wouldn’t have access to Emanuel and would be limited to shooting a few moments of video of Emanuel teaching. To add isnsult to injury, members of the media were told about the limited access while being held in the principal’s office.

Checking the comment section under stories about the mayor’s race at SJ-R.com, I have noticed that some people seem to think Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is on [Mike Coffey’s] side in the Springfield mayor’s race.

Madigan often eats at Saputo’s, the Coffey family restaurant. Although Coffey is a Republican, he made a point during the campaign of noting that Mike Thompson, a lobbyist and former Madigan staffer, was part of his campaign team. But there’s no indication that Madigan himself is on board.

“I have no idea if Mike Madigan’s for me,” Coffey said. “He eats in the restaurant, like many customers. Some are probably for me. Some are probably against me. I have no idea, and I don’t ask people. … All’s I care about is that they come into Saputo’s.”

Madigan spokesman Steve Brown, who happened to be in Saputo’s when I asked him about this, said Madigan wasn’t involved in either the Chicago or Springfield mayoral campaigns.

Working for Madigan usually means you always work for Madigan. But the top brass has gone far out of their way to insist that Thomson was on his own on this one. And Madigan seems to be eating elsewhere more often, lately.

The Regional Transportation Authority has come up with an interesting solution of sorts to its continuing Springfield woes. It’s hired the son-in-law of Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan for a $130,000-a-year job.

The RTA a little while ago announced that Jordan Matyas will begin work next week as its deputy executive director, overseeing the agency’s government affairs department. […]

The RTA’s spokeswoman says there is “no relationship” between the hiring and the fact that RTA Chairman John Gates has had a rocky relationship with Mr. Madigan, with continual talk that the speaker might even run a bill to abolish the agency.

“We wouldn’t call it a peace offering,” the spokeswoman said. “We’d call is the hiring of a person for a posted vacancy who we have determined is very highly qualified.”

Jordan used to lobby for the Humane Society, so he’s a do-gooder from way back. He started working for former state Rep. Judy Erwin when he was 15.

Matyas and I talked a few times about the “appearance” problems he was going to have after he married Madigan’s daughter. There’s just no avoiding it. Like his sister-in-law the attorney general, he’s just going to have to expect these questions about whether he accomplished something on his own or not. And he’ll never really know if he’s being offered stuff because of his experience (and he has plenty) or his super-powerful father-in-law.

I don’t think we’ve ever had this situation at the Statehouse before, so we’re in uncharted waters here. It would be easy to tell him to get outta the business, but that’s where his career is. So, it’s a tough one.

And, before you go weird in comments, Jordan and Tiffany are the real deal. Also, take if from me, you can’t help who you fall in love with. That’s just life. Sometimes, it causes problems, but it’s usually worth it.

Freshman State Representative Daniel Biss (D-Evanston) on Wednesday introduced a Constitutional amendment that would impose term limits on the Illinois General Assembly’s legislative leaders, a measure that force fellow Democrat House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) out of his post.

“The legislature is too tightly controlled by four individuals who are not accountable to most citizens,” Biss said. “This bill aims to make the legislative process more responsive by ensuring that we hear fresh ideas from new leaders, which is vitally important to how the legislative process takes shape.” […[

With a January 2014 effective date, House Joint Resolution Constitutional Amendment 20 would prohibit a member from serving in a leadership position for longer than ten years.

In addition to ending Madigan’s tenure as Speaker, who has held the job since 1983, with two-year hiatus between 1995-1997, Biss’ measure would also end the reign of House GOP Minority Leader Tom Cross (R-Oswego). Cross won his leadership job in 2002.

Powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan has joined as a sponsor of a House bi-partisan resolution calling for an audit of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation program “as it applies to state employees.”

The resolution, H.R. 131, filed Thursday, is co-sponsored by state Rep. Tom Holbrook, D-Belleville, and Rep. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Carbon. According to the official synopsis of the resolution, it seeks an audit that would include “the number of claims filed by state workers during the last four years, a review of the settlement contract process, an analysis of any fraud identification and control policies and procedures, an analysis of arbitrator caseloads over the four-year period, and a review of conflict of interest policies applicable to arbitrators and commissioners.” […]

“I’m pleased to work with Speaker Madigan in sponsoring legislation to audit the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission,” Kay said. “The legislature is now serious about auditing the (commission), and obtaining the support from Speaker Madigan is a big step in the right direction.

“Bipartisan support is necessary to move this legislation forward, and I’m optimistic an audit will be conducted quickly and thoroughly,” Kay said.

Kay is not one of the Speaker’s favorite people because he took a House seat away from the Democrats last year. Even if it was Jay Hoffman’s House seat.

*** UPDATE *** Rockford was briefly used as a hideout by those fleeing Wisconsin Democratic legislators, so now the city’s convention and tourism bureau is trying to turn the notoriety to their advantage with a new PR campaign. “Hide-Away in Rockford” has its own Facebook site and a new promo video featuring Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen, as well as other local types. Watch…

Illinois young republicans today called for Governor Pat Quinn to take action against the 14 Democratic State Senators who are hiding out in Illinois. The demand came in the form of a video released by the Illinois Federation of Young Republicans. […]

The ad, showing the 14 Wisconsin Senators as fugitives on the run, asserts that the individuals are avoiding making tough decisions and evading their responsibilities as lawmakers. The ad goes on to state that, “These democratic legislators must be returned to their home state to face their voters and force them to do the job that they were elected to do and the job that they were paid to do.” The ad ends with an appeal to call Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to tell him to return the Senators to Wisconsin.

Illinois Young Republican Chairman Dennis Cook said, “Governor Quinn should not allow Illinois to become a safe haven for legislators on the run. They were elected by the people of Wisconsin to do a job and they should own up to their responsibility. If our legislators fled to their state, we would want them to do the same thing.”

What’s Quinn supposed to do, send out the coppers to arrest the fleeing lawmakers for crossing state lines without a visa? I don’t get it. But, I’ve made plenty of jokes about rounding up the intruders and deporting them back to their inferior home states, so I kinda chuckled.

“Tell [Quinn] to return the fugitives to Wisconsin, where they belong.”

Ha!

…Adding… I put this in comments, but I figured I’d share it on the front page…

Maybe the CIA can do a “rendition.”

Can you imagine? Black helicopters descend predawn on a sleepy McHenry County town. The fugitives are immediately hooded and shackled and flown to Madison, where they are all promptly waterboarded and then forced to watch Barney episodes for days on end until they agree to vote “Yes” on Walker’s entire legislative agenda.

Perfection.

Also, those are some pretty slick production values for the Federation of Illinois Young Republicans. The Republican Governors Association has become involved with the Wisconsin protests, so money is flowing.

“It’s purely a cost-saving measure that a number of candidates ran on during the campaign season,” Brown said. “I think the opportunity to abolish that office is overdue. It’s largely a figurehead position.”

Even though such an idea could only take effect after her term ends in 2014, Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon said Thursday that she’s opposed.

“I think we need a lieutenant governor,” Simon said. “Of course, you have to understand I’m kind of biased about that.”

* The Question: Abolish the lt. governor’s office, yes or no? Take the poll, and then don’t forget to explain your answer in comments…

* The overreaction by Gov. Pat Quinn to stories about how the Department of Corrections released violent prisoners against his direct orders has caused some serious problems…

Without MGT, and Randle’s ramped-up version, tagged MGT-Push, the state effectively put a lid on its often overcrowded prisons. The result is the number of inmates in Illinois prisons has exploded to an all-time high of 48,760 as of Feb. 14.

“We shot ourselves in the foot by ending MGT,” DOC senior policy analyst Cory Foster told an audience at Northwestern School of Law in December.

During its brief, three-month tenure, MGT-Push allowed the early release of 1,754 inmates. Another 24,172 prisoners in 2009 were eligible for good-time credits under MGT. Keeping them behind bars (the numbers represent about half of the state’s total prison population) for lengthier stays increases the likelihood of violence against other inmates and for prison staff, said John Maki, executive director of The John Howard Association of Illinois, a nonprofit group that monitors Illinois prisons.

“Overcrowding undermines the cost effectiveness of our prison system and threatens the safety of correctional officers and inmates. It decreases the chances that inmates will have access to rehabilitative services, which increases the likelihood that they’ll re-offend once they are released,” said Maki.

MGT-Push was the problem. It was carried out against the governor’s direct orders. MGT has been around for years and was not necessarily the problem. But, as is typical when the media kicks up a ruckus, the administration overreacted and stopped everything. And now the prisons are filled to the rafters.

Belleville police are making more traffic stops because of a new rule that they make two self-initiated contacts per 12-hour shift. Those can include any combination of traffic tickets, traffic warnings and field interview reports.

In January 2010, before the requirement was in place for those assigned to patrol, officers wrote nine speeding tickets and 13 warning tickets. Last month, the first full month of the new rule, officers wrote 45 speeding tickets and 165 warning tickets.

Also, for all of 2010, police made 2,259 traffic stops. In January, the first full month of the two-contacts-per-day standard, police made 1,603 stops — 70 percent of last year’s total, all in one month.

Police Chief William Clay said it’s not just busy work, and it’s not about money from tickets. It’s his initiative to get officers more proactively engaged with the public. He thinks that’s the best way to address crime. In other words, the more contact officers have with the public, the more likely the officers are to find people with drugs, guns or arrest warrants.

Looks like the policy is “working,” but it really comes close to a quota system. Actually, it is a quota system, but it isn’t technically a ticket quota system.

Zagel said he was troubled by juror accounts after the first trial that they had been hounded by reporters in the hours and days following their verdict. A helicopter hovered over one juror’s home, and another juror complained that the same reporter rang the doorbell every half an hour, according to the judge. […]

The judge referred to the news media as “rapacious” at one point in the hearing and expressed concern that the dogged pursuit of jurors after a verdict will deter people from wanting to serve.

“We have clear evidence that some members of the media will disregard the ordinary rights of citizens … to get the story,” Zagel said.

Early this year Duffy introduced SB0026, a bill that would make it illegal for red-light cameras to be used to ticket drivers who turn right during a red light.

Duffy himself has received a ticket for a red-light violation after failing to come to a complete stop when he made a right turn during a red light. He said this infraction produces about 90 percent of all red-light tickets.

“Put a ‘No Turn On Red’ sign there, don’t bait the hook by putting a camera there that picks people out if they don’t stop on the white line,” Duffy said.

Actually, Sen. Duffy has received two red light camera tickets. Here’s the video from his second citation…

The problem isn’t that there was no “No Turn On Red” sign at the intersection. You are allowed to turn on red at that light. But you’re supposed to stop first.

* Related…

* Dangerous doctors slipping through the cracks - It took the discovery of guns and grenades to suspend the license of a psychiatrist who some say should have come under scrutiny years earlier

* Illinois Blue Cross and Blue Shield to pay $25 million fraud settlement - Plan reportedly denied coverage to sick children in need of nursing care by “fraudulently” shifting their claims to Illinois’ Medicaid program

Gee whiz, moans Capital Fax, which has an abiding tolerance for Leftist demagogues…in contradistinction to the Right which it despises…the Illinois Senate “won’t be the same without Rickey Hendon.” No-no, the publication sees no connection between the West Side flash-in-the-pan’s instant resignation and the federal probe underway for state grants he authorized—of course not; it would be mean-spirited and racist, that’s what. Also that’s the courtesy the publication gives to all its liberal friends (no connection, see, because he seems so calm—just suffering from hypertension).

The same salute “won’t be the same without Rickey Hendon” could have been said years earlier by some indiscriminate drinking buddies about the departure of Mississippi’s Theodore Bilbo. Like Bilbo Hendon had an acid tongue which he used unsparingly after which he would slink over to his victim and apologize. For no particular purpose other than Bill Brady is a conservative did Hendon assault him before the cameras as “the most racist, idiotic, sexist, homophobic” person he ever knew. Then he tried to apologize to Brady who deserved none of those epithets….tried to apologize as he featured himself as a character who could say whatever he wanted and be forgiven later.

It may be good old Hollywood Rickey to Capital Fax because he practiced the bigotry and character assassination lefty hypocrites secretly enjoy as they snuffle their laughter behind cupped hands—language they would faint over near-dead about if it were conveyed to any of their friends who, like Hendon, practiced the art of racial racketeering and slander. We’ll see how much of that hypertension is caused by hidden concern that the Feds may be on to something. No-no-no, not our Rickey.

* Some commenters gave Rep. Mike Tryon (R-Crystal Lake) a lot of heat yesterday for announcing that he’d introduce legislation to require those fleeing Wisconsin and Indiana Democratic state lawmakers to pay income taxes to Illinois while they’re here.

The announcement was, in my opinion, basically an attention-grabbing stunt and mostly a joke. But, overall, Tryon is one of the more thoughtful House members. He has several good bills in the hopper to make government run better. For instance…

Creates the Long-Term Accounting Act of 2011. Provides that the purpose of the Act is to improve transparency and accountability during the State budget process

Amends the Legislative Information System Act. Requires, for the 98th General Assembly and thereafter, the Legislative Information System to make available on the General Assembly’s website each vote taken on a bill in any committee of the General Assembly showing, in searchable form, each committee member’s vote, Representative or Legislative District, and political party.

He’s also a co-sponsor of a bipartisan resolution calling on the governor to rescind his zeroing out of substance abuse treatment programs.

Tryon said he opposed a 2007 bill that extended the 5% Illinois tax to temporary workers — including professional athletes and movie stars. But if it’s on the books, the Wisconsin senators should pay, Tryon said.

“We believe they are working because they are on TV saying they are working,” he said.

Tryon’s maneuver, essentially, is all for political show since there is virtually no chance Illinois’ Democratic-led House will allow the measure to move, particularly given how the state budget meltdown is first and foremost on the legislative agenda.

“We’re dealing with a huge budget problem in our state,” said Rep. Jack Franks (D-Marengo), whose legislative district has hosted the Wisconsin legislative delegation. “I know we can have some fun with this … but we have to be very focused on what we’re doing. We have plenty of problems in Illinois, more than most states do.”

When Jack Franks whacks you for showboating on a tax issue, you know you’ve gone too far. [/Snark]

Tryon’s bill has been filed, but yesterday was the filing deadline, so LIS is behind. I’ll link to it later today, but here’s the text…

(v) Compensation paid to nonresident state legislators.

The Illinois source income of a nonresident individual who is a member of a state legislature other than Illinois includes the portion of the individual’s total compensation for services performed as a legislator when: (a) the legislator is physically located in Illinois; and (b) the legislator is in Illinois for the purpose of denying a quorum to the legislative body of which the legislator is a member.

Illinois source income shall not count as income any segment of a legislator’s total compensation for services covering time periods when the legislator is in Illinois for reasons of legitimate legislative business, other than denial of a quorum, or for the purpose of receiving required health care or assisting a member of the legislator’s family to receive required health care.

Anyone looking for a quiet getaway with no distractions at the Urbana Comfort Suites this week may be out of luck.

And for a group of Indiana Democrats seeking asylum from voting on what they call a radical bill, the cat’s out of the bag.

A group of Tea Partiers today are rallying outside the hotel on North Lincoln Avenue – they are telling the Indiana state legislators to go home. Across the parking lot driveway, another group – mostly University of Illinois students – has gathered to counter the Tea Party rally and to tell the legislators and passing cars that they are happy to give shelter to the out-of-state representatives.

The Democrats have left Indianapolis to block a vote on a Republican-supported “right-to-work” bill that prohibits union membership from being a condition of employment.

Indiana House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer said Thursday he’s not sure whether boycotting Democrats will return to the Statehouse on Monday because so far “nothing’s changed” as House Republicans refuse to negotiate or drop contentious labor and education bills from their agenda.

Most Democrats have fled to Illinois in an effort to derail legislation they consider an assault on the working class. Republicans who control the House adjourned until Monday after Democrats said they won’t be back this week.

Bauer, D-South Bend, said Democrats won’t return from Urbana, Ill., where they fled Tuesday, until House Republicans are willing to negotiate their agenda. He said he would like to meet with Wisconsin Senate Democrats who also have fled to Illinois to block GOP-backed legislation that would strip public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights. Bauer said such a meeting would be like a pair of crime victims meeting to talk about their attacker.

Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law Thursday a plan aimed at fixing Indiana’s debt-ridden unemployment fund that labor unions had opposed because it will reduce jobless benefits for some people while softening business tax increases.

* The national fight over labor rights has moved to another neighboring state. Iowa…

Despite 15 hours of debate and delay by Democrats, Republicans in the House Labor Committee were finally able to pass a bill Friday morning that would weaken collective bargaining rights for Iowa’s public employees.

Democrats offered 48 amendments, starting at noon Thursday and culminating in a 9 to 5 party-line vote around 6 a.m. Friday morning. The bill – House Study Bill 117 — was left unchanged and will now go to the full House.

The legislation makes numerous changes to collective bargaining laws, ranging from allowing the legislature or governor to veto decisions made by an arbitrator to denying unions the ability to negotiate their health insurance or retirement plans. Restrictions or limitations on outsourcing would be lifted, and unions would no longer have any say regarding layoffs. The bill also allows employees to become “free agents,” who can negotiate their terms of employment directly with employers even if they are in a union shop.

Democratic state Sen. Robert Jauch, a longtime Wisconsin lawmaker, said Thursday that despite rumors that some of his colleagues had returned to the state, “everybody is outside of Wisconsin . . . all of us.”

Jauch criticized what he called the “police state mentality” of Republicans in the Capitol and took issue with Walker’s assertions that Democrats who had fled the state were abandoning their duties.

“I’m doing more from the Land of Lincoln to communicate with citizens in my district than he is,” Jauch said, adding that the Senate Democrats talk regularly and are “trying to reach out through back channels to see what the solution could be. This governor has dug himself in - that’s very clear.”

A week after leaving their home state, at least five Wisconsin state senators met Thursday in a private residence in Woodstock. […]

Several senators had met Monday and Tuesday in a Harvard hotel conference room, but said the have not returned to that hotel since a group of local tea party protesters showed up at the hotel. It is unknown when the group began meeting at the Woodstock residence, but neighbors said they had seen large groups of cars with Wisconsin license plates showing up to the home for three days.

* Also, a rally has been called for tomorrow at noon in Chicago. From a press release…

Across the country, tens of thousands of people are gathering on Saturday to show their solidarity with Wisconsin and Indiana public employees. Hundreds of people will gather in Chicago to demand an end to the assault on organized labor. In Chicago and across the country, union and non union residents have come together to stand up to the corporate greed and conservative ideology that is trying to strip away protections for all workers in America.

The Thompson Center rally is sponsored by Moveon.org, Citizen Action/Illinois and AFSCME Council 31.

• Negative Factor Affecting Bond Ratings. The audited financial statements contained in the CAFR [Comprehensive Annual Financial Report] are one of the primary documents used by the bond rating agencies when assessing the State’s financial condition. The bond rating agencies view negatively the late release of the audited financial statements. Illinois’ untimely financial reports have been highlighted as negative factors in two recent reports issued by Moody’s. […]

• Negative Impact on Federal Funding. Each year, the State of Illinois depends heavily on funding received from the federal government. In fiscal year 2009, Illinois expended $23.7 billion in federal awards. Officials from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which is the federal oversight agency for Illinois, noted that, although it was unlikely that a State would lose its federal funding, untimely financial reporting could have an effect on the amount of discretionary funding received. In May 2010, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education regarding the single audit. The letter stated that if the audit was not submitted within 15 days, it would be classified as missing. The letter further stated that the Secretary of Education may “…suspend the payment of account maintenance fees, default fees, and claims to an entity that does not submit its audit within the required time period.”

In other words, this is really hurting us.

* Another reason why these reports are so important…

• State Financial Management/Oversight Adversely Affected. Legislative and oversight bodies are one of the primary users of financial reports. When financial reports are not available, legislative and oversight officials are forced to use outdated information or unaudited numbers.

* More details…

In addition to the lack of a centralized GAAP compliant financial reporting system, other factors have an adverse impact on the timeliness and accuracy of financial reporting:

• The Comptroller’s Office is responsible for financial reporting but does not have authority over the agencies from which it collects information. Furthermore, there is no penalty if the agencies do not cooperate with the Comptroller. The Comptroller’s Office and the Governor’s Office should work together to establish financial reporting target completion dates and ensure that such dates are met.

• The State of Illinois has a complex fund structure that utilized an estimated 900 funds in fiscal year 2009. A complex fund structure increases the level of effort necessary to account for and report transactions and increases the risk of errors and omissions.

• Many State agencies have a lack of competent trained staff in the area of financial reporting and reported that the personnel system impedes their ability to hire qualified staff.

* And…

• Agencies reported that only 16 percent of the systems are compliant with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).

• Half of the financial reporting systems in use at State agencies are more than 10 years old.

• Fifty-three percent of the financial reporting systems are not interrelated which consequently requires manual intervention to convert data from one system so it can be used in another.

• The total estimated cost of maintaining the systems in fiscal year 2010 was not determinable. Agencies provided cost estimates totaling $24 million which covered only 56 percent of the systems.

I’ve been reading Auditor General reports like this since I started doing this job, back in 1990. It’s simply amazing to me that Illinois can’t get its act together. Or, maybe I shouldn’t be so amazed. How about disgusted? Yeah, that’s better.

What a mess.

…Adding… And speaking of screwed up numbers, Gov. Pat Quinn’s office recently released a list of past-due bills it owes to vendors, universities, schools, etc. Turns out, the list has lots of mistakes. Here are a few in the Southland…

According to the list, the state owes Trinity Services $17.70. But [Rep. Renee Kosel] said the nonprofit agency, which helps the disabled, may be owed more than $1 million.

Dr. Susan Rife, an Orland Park physician on the list for $55, believes that figure is much too low. Her office bills the state for Medicaid patients, and the state is at least six months behind in paying, she said.

“It’s why doctors are refusing patients on public aid,” Rife said. “My office does not take any new patients who are on public aid. Now, if circumstances change with my current patients, we make accommodations.”

Rife said she would be in favor of the state borrowing to pay its vendors but only if it wasn’t from the federal government.

Some 640 Southland creditors were owed $500 or less from the state. About 290 of those are owed $100 or less, but 25 towns and school districts each still await $1 million or more in state payments, according to the SouthtownStar’s analysis.

* We’ve talked about most of this already, but I thought I’d include it in my Sun-Times column…

Carol Moseley Braun’s loss on Tuesday was “the embarrassment of a lifetime for black people,” said Rickey Hendon moments after he resigned from the Illinois Senate on Thursday.

Hendon was just being Hendon. Rhetorical flourishes are his specialty.

The fault lies not with “black people,” but with folks who worked to make Braun the “consensus” candidate. They figured that a woman in an all-male field would be a tremendous advantage. Add that to her proven vote-getting history in the black community and she was a mighty contender on paper.

But anybody who knew anything about her U.S. Senate career understood that Braun would be a disaster. She’s simply unmanageable. Her supporters were left disappointed and dejected within months of her departure for Washington, D.C. And in the end, her election proved to be a fluke that she could not repeat.

The worst mistake by the consensus crew, however, was looking backward for a standard bearer instead of promoting someone with fresh, new ideas. That’s probably because most of the people doing the choosing cut their political teeth decades ago and have been in power so long that they’ve lost touch with today.

And it’s not like they haven’t had any recent experience to guide them. Barack Obama’s sudden ascendancy to the U.S. Senate caught the Old Guard completely by surprise. His rise to the presidency did the same for entrenched African-American leaders in other states, who mostly backed Hillary Clinton.

Toni Preckwinkle was another prominent example. There she was in a Democratic primary race with two other African-American candidates and just one white candidate and she won the Cook County Board presidency with a truly extraordinary 50 percent of the vote because of the force of her ideas and the content of her character.

Instead, the consensus crowd chose a stale, 20th century rerun in a 21st century contest. I saw a factoid that blew my mind. Braun won just one precinct in all of Chicago. One. This election wasn’t about black people rejecting the concept of black political power. It was about black voters deciding that a candidate who happened to have their same skin color was wholly unqualified to be their mayor. And the blame for that one falls squarely on the consensus crew.

It didn’t help matters much, of course, that Obama more than subtly weighed in on Rahm Emanuel’s behalf. But if a stronger, more vital candidate had been fielded, Obama might have been forced to stay away. Instead, Obama and Emanuel saw their opportunities and they took ’em.

Slowly, but surely, young African Americans are moving up the political ladder. I’ve watched several grow into maturity through service in the Illinois General Assembly. But I’ve also seen their frustration at the unwillingness of the Old Guard to relinquish their grip on power.

There have been setbacks for this new generation. Former state Representatives David Miller and Robin Kelly won Democratic primaries for statewide office last year, then lost their general election contests. Miller made an unfortunate choice of running against the very well-known Judy Baar Topinka, and Kelly just never put together much of a campaign. But just as Obama learned from his loss to Bobby Rush, the new generation can learn from Miller and Kelly. Choose your contest wisely and then go absolutely all out to win.

I do not believe Braun’s loss is the end of black political power in Chicago. I think the proper lesson to learn here is that this could be and should be the last gasp of the Old Guard. They blew it as much as she did. It’s time for something new.

* No Council Wars for Ald. Ed Burke and Mayor-Elect Emanuel: “Some things are said in the heat of battle,” Burke told us. He indicated that he would fight to retain his chairmanship, declaring. “Twenty six aldermen will decide whether I do or not.” In campaign disclosure reports filed last month, Burke revealed a multi-million dollar political war chest second only to Emanuel’s.

The electric grid underpins our entire economy and data-driven way of life. Designed a century ago, the Illinois grid has served us well. But it’s an analog system struggling to serve a digital age. The grid works well for the purposes of yesterday; but is simply incapable of meeting the demands of tomorrow.

The Energy Infrastructure Modernization Act (HB 14-1) will build the electric grid that the 21st century demands. ComEd’s $2.6 billion investment will mean:

* First, the Department of Human Services was ordered to cut childcare services in this fiscal year by $100 million. Then, DHS pulled back after a ferocious public response. Then, DHS ordered $208 million in immediate cuts to programs like substance abuse. And, now, DHS has pulled back again, reducing that target to $100 million, apparently on orders from the governor...

If there was any good news coming out of the hearing today, it was that the human services budget needed only to find $100 million in savings for the current year — a number down from the $208 million previously assumed; Saddler said aides to Gov. Pat Quinn gave her the new number only this morning in fact.

But the Quinn administration’s budgeting maneuvers were blasted by some of the General Assembly members who attending today’s hearing; there is deep frustration with the shifting reductions target, repeatedly leaning on human services for cuts and savings, and spending priorities.

State Sen. William Delgado (D-Chicago) was among the most vocal. Delgado accused the governor’s office of failing to share information, describing talk of $100 million in reductions as “another movement to keep everybody pacified.”

He called the governor a “ferocious bear” and posed stark questions about whether cuts in addiction services and other programs would result in a larger prison population; the Department of Corrections (DOC) is getting more money, he said today.

The trouble is, it’s not clear what will be cut. So, we’re going to do this all over again. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on this fiscal year. Every cut they make is magnified because there are so few days left.

Facing a torrent of protest, Gov. Pat Quinn on Thursday cut in half plans to impose more than $200 million in drastic reductions next month on the Department of Human Services, including a cutoff of state funding for drug and alcohol abuse treatment programs that threatened to shutter several providers of addiction services.
Quinn’s budget office and the human services officials recently informed social service providers of planned cuts totaling $208 million. But on Thursday, the size of the cuts was reduced to about $100 million. Quinn said he had concerns about the fairness of how programs were targeted for cutbacks, including drug and alcohol treatment for individuals who did not qualify under federally reimbursed Medicaid coverage for the poor.

“I don’t want to have such a severe situation that it causes great harm, so part of my job in balancing (the social service needs) is to step in,” the governor told reporters after speaking to the City Club of Chicago. “My ultimate responsibility is to find the right balance and sometimes to step in and say, ‘OK, this is enough and that will be the way it goes.’ ”